Bu Instructions
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Instructions for using the BU Dissertation Template
Thanks for your interest in the template. Please note: this template is NOT foolproof.
It is not locked down; you are free to mess things up. So please read these instructions.
These instructions are in beta. This means that they're a work in progress. We'd very
much appreciate your feedback: what's unclear, what's missing, what's well explained.
Please email any feedback to Vika Zafrin, vzafrin@bu.edu.
This template was created in August, 2013 using Word 2011 for Mac. It was tested
using Word 2010 on Windows 7. It accords with the requirements set out in the most
recent BU Libraries Guide for Writers of Theses and DIssertations (January 2013).
How to view the template
Open the document in Word. Reveal the non-printing characters by clicking the "Show/
hide nonprinting characters" button in the Standard toolbar. This button looks like a
stylized backwards capital P.
Here's how the template is set up
Here's what we've done for you in this template:
⁃The margins are set to 1.5" top and left, 1" bottom and right; header is 1" from
edge of paper, and footer is 0.75" from edge.
⁃The font n all the elements of the template is set to Times New Roman. If you
want to use a different font, please change the styles, not the text. See below for
working with styles.
⁃For pagination purposes, the document is separated into three sections: front
matter with no page numbers; front matter with Roman numeral page numbers in
the footer; and main text with Arabic numeral page numbers in the header. See
the section breaks on pages 3 and 13 of the original template? DO NOT DELETE
THEM unless you really know what you're doing.
⁃This document assumes that, when you need to jump over to a new page (for
example, at the beginning of a new chapter), you are not pressing Enter until
you're there, but instead inserting a page break (Insert -> Break -> Page Break).
⁃The table of contents and other various listings (table of figures, list of tables, etc)
are set up to be generated automatically. This is done using styles. See below for
working with tables of contents.
Copying and Pasting
You'll probably want to paste your own content from one or more other documents into
the template. Because of the way Word does copy-and-paste, this might yield
unexpected results if you aren't aware of what you're pasting.
Word "knows" about what kind of formatting should apply to particular bits of text by
storing information about that "behind" the text you're seeing on the screen. It shows
you a relatively clean page, but there's a lot of metadata you're not seeing. Often, this
metadata is not stored in a very efficient way. When you copy and paste text from one
Word document to another, you're copying and pasting its metadata as well. This may
produce undesired results.
If you have dissertation writing in a file outside the template, the safest way to deal with
this is the following:
⁃copy some text you'd like to paste
⁃go to the template, and click in the place where you'd like to paste it
⁃go to the Edit menu and choose "Paste and match formatting"
Please note that any formatting you've done up to that point in the other document,
including superscript, italics, bold, etc, will be gone. You'll have to recreate it manually.
If you've already got a lot of intricately formatted text in another document, you might try
the following:
⁃in the template, select all and copy
⁃in your own file, go to the end (it doesn't matter where) and paste everything
you've copied; this will paste in both the text itself, and all the styles we've used
in the template
⁃now delete everything you've pasted by selecting it and pressing the "delete"
button (not by choosing to undo!)
⁃the text will be gone, but the styles you've pasted in will still be there
⁃you can now apply those styles to the main text of your dissertation, to match the
template (we wouldn't bother with the front matter, which is faster to edit manually
in the template itself)
After that, if you want to take advantage of the pagination and automatically generated
tables of contents in the template, it's still a good idea to copy and paste your
dissertation into the template itself.
Working with Styles and Tables of Contents
The four automatically generated lists in the template are the Table of Contents, List of
Tables, List of Figures, and List of Illustrations. (Please note: the List of Abbreviations
and Glossary should be created manually.) The automatically generated lists rely on
styles to build themselves. First, let's consider the Table of Contents, or ToC for short.
The ToC builds itself from text designated as Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3.
These designations are made using styles. You should see a Styles box in your Home
tab.
To designate some text as a style, highlight that text (for example, the word "Abstract"
on the page with the abstract) and inside the Styles box click the style "Heading 1" —
use the right and left arrows in that box to find it, if you don't see it.
Chapter headings should be designated as "Heading 1." Section and subsection
headings are Heading 2 and Heading 3, respectively.
Changing the text of your headings will not automatically update the ToC. To update it,
right-click anywhere in the ToC and choose "Update Field." Then choose "Update entire
table." Your ToC should update automatically.
The other automatically generated lists are built on the same principle, with one style
per list. List of Tables uses the style called "BU Table Caption"; List of Figures uses "BU
Figure Caption"; List of Illustrations uses "BU Illustration Caption". Naturally, these
styles should be applied to the captions themselves and not to the lists (which are auto-
generated and have the BU ToC style applied to them).
You can update these three lists the same way as you update the ToC: right-click
anywhere in the list, choose "Update Field," then choose "Update entire table."
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This should get you well on your way to making the template work for you. The
instructions are probably missing something you'd like help with. Please let us know
how we can help — email Vika Zafrin, vzafrin@bu.edu with details, including what
operating system and version of Word you’re using.
